Chapter 1: What does the steadfast love of God mean?
The love by which God exercises his steadfast mercy and loyalty to us is so clearly demonstrated. The essence of chesed is found on the cross when Christ purchases us from slavery.
Adultery is such a grievous sin because it can divide marriages, destroy families, and its discovery reveals the betrayal of unfaithfulness. And even though we may not have experienced the consequences of someone breaking the seventh commandment in our families, most of us have felt the sting of betrayal to one degree or another.
And it's against the backdrop of this fallen and sinful world that we see the faithful, loyal, loving kindness of God shine so bright. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and this is the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. As Valentine's Day is approaching, many people are preparing to declare or reaffirm their love for each other.
And in seasons like this, it seems fitting to pause and to consider the love of God. And in particular today, R.C. Sproul will help us reflect on a superlative kind of love, hesed in the Hebrew, often translated as His mercy, kindness, loyal love, faithfulness, or loving kindness.
Chapter 2: How is the concept of chesed illustrated in the Bible?
So what does this kind of love look like? Here's Dr. Sproul.
Today we're going to look at the positive way in which the Scripture speaks to us about the loyal love of God. Before I do that, I have a confession to make. When I was in college and in seminary, I studied the Greek language for six years, and so I got a good background. and foundation in biblical Greek.
However, the only exposure I had to Hebrew was one semester in seminary where I missed half of the semester with illness. And so my background in Hebrew is very weak. In fact, when I was coming home from graduate school in the Netherlands to fly back to America, I was overweight. And I didn't have enough money to pay for the fine.
And so what I did to compensate for the problem was I left my Hebrew Bible in Schiphol Airport. And that got me under the weight limit because that thing was so big. And after I got to this country, I never bothered to buy another one.
Chapter 3: Why is adultery considered a grievous sin?
So that my knowledge of Hebrew is abysmal. I can barely make it through the alphabet. But with the help of dictionaries, I sort of wander around it. But I'm not. a scholar of ancient Hebrew by any means. But there is one word in Hebrew, a few words that I know, one that is so central and so important to the whole concept of the love of God that we find in the Old Testament.
It's a word that occurs over and over and over again, and it is the word chesed. And that word has been translated in many, many different ways. Sometimes it is simply translated by the word mercy. Sometimes it is translated by the word kindness. Sometimes it is translated by the phrase covenant love.
The most common translation is through the single word, the compound word, lovingkindness, and though in some instances it's translated by the phrase, the loyal love of God.
And this concept is found very early in the Pentateuch, and it is the word that is used to describe God's relationship to the people of Israel when He brings them out of bondage into the Exodus and pledges to them that He would be their God and they would be His people. And so by covenant oath, God commits His love to the nation that He has formed out of their slavery.
And the bond of that covenant is this idea of chesed, or steadfast love, or loving kindness. Remember, again in the Old Testament prophet Micah, where People tried to do what we do today. We want to have everything boiled down to three easy lessons.
And so I'm sure the prophet was bothered by people who wanted the whole of the responsibility of a Jew to the covenant Lord to be spelled out in simple phrases. And the question that is asked there is, what is it that the Lord requires of you? And the answer that the prophet Micah delivers from the mouth of God is, here is what the Lord requires of you.
To do justice or righteousness, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. And you think about it for a minute. If we could follow that abbreviated condensation, the crystallization of the essence of a godly life, it boils down to those three things, to do what is right, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God. Well, the second part of that injunction, to love mercy, is the word chesed.
Here's what God requires of you, Micah is saying, that you not only do what is right, but that you manifest loving kindness, steadfast love, or what I'm calling here the idea of loyal love. I had a friend who was a seminary student of mine many years ago. He's now been in the pastorate for several years. And he told me, he said that they have an expression in their family
that they use quite frequently. And I said, what's that expression? He said, at our house, we talk about that we stick with the stuck. I said, stick with the stuck? I never heard an expression like, what's it mean to stick with the stuck? And he said, you know, we stick with the stuck. I said, no, I don't know. What do you mean we stick with the stuck?
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